In light of some recent spam attacks on both the forums and accounts being set up pretending to be someone else, the Moderators, along with our Community Manager and Developer at Leaf Group (formally Demand Media) have decided that all new members will need to have their first forum post approved.

The Moderators, Community Manager and Developer at Leaf Group are going to work together over the next while to look into other options to remove/reduce the risk of spam posts/spam members.

If you are a new member to our forums, then welcome and thank you for your patience and understanding. This new requirement will increase the Moderators work load here at airliners.net as we screen first posts, but I'm sure you'll all enjoy seeing less spam posts as we work to remove members who simply shouldn't be posting here.

I hope you don't mind me posting here. I just wanted to let you know that, after signing-up, I had to logout and login again, before I could use the forums. That's not to criticize your site (which is fabulous), but new members might not know that and wonder if their account is broken.

Er... well... here I am, I guess. And if I am going to get something wrong, this is a good a place as any to do it.

So let's start off with a technical question (site related); what are the icons at the extreme left hand side of the list of conversations? The first four have red map pins, signifying that these threads are pinned to the top - I get that. The other threads have icons that allow us to jump to the most recent posting on a particular topic? And what is the difference between the "page-of-text" icon, and the "red-cloud-with-two-pointy-ears-protruding" icon? (I'm speaking from memory - I can't actually view them just now)

I promised myself I'd leave before the party turned ugly. I would quit at 1000 !Here I am stuck at 994; each time I'm tempted to post, I find myself wondering who will even read it / what is the point?Or maybe I've just got nothing left to say.

Er... well... here I am, I guess. And if I am going to get something wrong, this is a good a place as any to do it.

So let's start off with a technical question (site related); what are the icons at the extreme left hand side of the list of conversations? The first four have red map pins, signifying that these threads are pinned to the top - I get that. The other threads have icons that allow us to jump to the most recent posting on a particular topic? And what is the difference between the "page-of-text" icon, and the "red-cloud-with-two-pointy-ears-protruding" icon? (I'm speaking from memory - I can't actually view them just now)

The difference between the page on text icon and the red cloud with two pointy ears protruding icon is that the red one shows a thread you have clicked on/read with more than 100 posts, basically it makes it easier to identify when looking for it. The other icon you will notice from time to time is an arrow pointing to the left, this means that particular topic has been moved into a different sub forum, for example from civil aviation to travel, polls and preferences

The difference between the page on text icon and the red cloud with two pointy ears protruding icon is that the red one shows a thread you have clicked on/read with more than 100 posts, basically it makes it easier to identify when looking for it. The other icon you will notice from time to time is an arrow pointing to the left, this means that particular topic has been moved into a different sub forum, for example from civil aviation to travel, polls and preferences

Firstly - thx for the reply.Secondly - I'm not sure you are 100% correct. I am seeing red pointy ears icons on all sorts of threads I know for a fact I have never even glanced at. It does seem to be true that the red markers come with threads that have more than 100 posts, so... could it be that the marker signifies that a particular thread is popular (as in "on fire" perhaps)? I cannot believe that the icon is really designed to mimic a cloud with ears, so could it represent a small blaze with two flames?

I promised myself I'd leave before the party turned ugly. I would quit at 1000 !Here I am stuck at 994; each time I'm tempted to post, I find myself wondering who will even read it / what is the point?Or maybe I've just got nothing left to say.

I hope you don't mind me posting here. I just wanted to let you know that, after signing-up, I had to logout and login again, before I could use the forums. That's not to criticize your site (which is fabulous), but new members might not know that and wonder if their account is broken.

I just joined, I did think something was wrong with my account initially as I couldn't post my first post, thankfully I saw the quoted post. Thanks, AlexAmsterdam!